Canadian Car Lifestyle Blog

True North “Show”Room

I was initially excited to go to the BMW/Mercedes/Audi TrueNorth event. There were tons of people sharing my views on Facebook leading up to the event. After arriving at the “show” I thought I took a wrong turn somewhere and wound up at a showroom or service lot. Maybe its the initial purchase price, or the large lease payments. It seem as though these tuners don’t have modding budgets to match their expensive taste in cars. Its not as if I have the money either. But if I were to display my vehicle at a “show” I think a certain level of modifications should be required. Any combination of blacked grills, CF mirror caps, Replica M wheels, springs, JB4 tunes do not make a show entrant. Individuality in the modern BMW scene is dead. I think the bare minimum should be wheels that aren’t OEM+. At least you’d visually look different. And another thing that caught my eye are M coloured badging and decals on non-M cars. Girls don’t care, and car dudes know better. Who are you trying to impress? Replying with “I do it for myself.”, just makes it look worse. Are you trying to convince yourself you bought an M model? Don’t strive to make the car something it isn’t. Don’t fool yourself. It would be like branding your iPhone 5s as an iPhone 6, and telling people you did it because you thought it looks good and not to impress anyone else. #whyyoualwayslyin This isn’t a rant against the casual owners who mod their cars. There is a place for you still. I just don’t think its at a “show”. As such, all of the photos were of old cars who are exempt from the above criticism, or newer cars that actually have personality.

While this M3 would have been enough to tickle my insides, if it were stock, a nice set of HREs made me damn near giddy.

Sharan’s E21 I’ve always loved. An old chassis bagged on BBS wheels? Recipe to grab attention at any show.

Other than the E30 M3, I think this 6 series was my favourite car. It seems to be a track car, or at least track oriented. While shod with OEM wheels, the roll cage, Sparco seats and splitter pull the package together.

The yellow e92 above was one of the very few modern BMWs that actually looked modified. Extra points for going the OZ route. The blue 135i below, one of the few legitimate show worthy new BMWs in the GTA.

Contrary to what I said above, I just like the new M3s too much not to photograph. Still, I’m not sure I’d consider this a show car.

I think this was one of a handful of Audis that didn’t have OEM/replica Audi RS wheels. Rants over, the show was free, so I might consider going back next year.